Curious George Learns the Alphabet
Curious George Learns the Alphabet is the sixth book in the original Curious George series, written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1963. Plot Readers learn the alphabet along with George as the man in the yellow hat teaches the curious monkey how to read. As the Man and George write each of the letters from the alphabet, they draw the picture (matching to the correct letter of the alphabet): * Capital A for Alligator; lowercase a for apple * Capital B for Bird; lowercase b for bee * Capital C and lowercase c for crab (the capital "C" becomes a Big Crab; the lowercase "c" becomes a small crab) The Man with the Yellow Hat makes the word Cab after George learned three letters. * Capital D for Dinosaur; lowercase d for a dromedary * Capital E for Elephant; lowercase e for ear * Capital F for a Fireman Fighting a Fire; lowercase f for a flower * Capital G for Goose and George; lowercase g for goldfish The Man with the Yellow Hat tells George to read seven letters and some of the words that can be made with them (such as 'bag', 'feed', 'cage', and 'bad') while he gets George some lunch. When he comes back with George's lunch, he catches George with the paper around his neck ("It seems the only word you can read is 'bad'", he says) and lets George eat his lunch and then settles him down for a nap before they go on with their letters. * Capital H for House; lowercase h for horse * Capital I for Icicle; lowercase i for iguana * Capital J for Jaguar; lowercase j for a jack-in-the-box * Capital K for a big Kangaroo called Katy; lowercase k for a little kangaroo, Katy's baby kangaroo (or "kid kangaroo"). * Capital L for Lion and Leg of a Lamb; lowercase for a lean lady, lake, and lollipop * Capital M for Mr. Miller the Mailman; lowercase m for mouse who munches mints The Man with the Yellow Hat tells George that there are 26 letters in the alphabet and that the letter "M" is the thirteenth, so they are halfway through. He gives George a pad of paper and a pencil and George begins to write words out of letters. When he shows it to his friend, the Man with the Yellow Hat is impressed with the real words ('ball', 'milk', 'cake', 'ham', 'jam', 'egg', 'lime', 'feed', and 'kid'), but gets confused at the made-up words ('dalg', 'glidj', and 'blimlimlim') and tells George that there are no such things and that not just any grouping of letters forms a word. Then they begin the other half of the alphabet. * Capital N for Napkin; lowercase n for a nose * Capital O and lowercase o for ostrich (The Capital "O" becomes a Big Ostrich; the lowercase "o" becomes a small ostrich) * Capital P and lowercase p for penguin (The Capital "P" becomes a Big Penguin; lowercase "p" becomes a small penguin) * Capital Q for a Quail; lowercase q for a quarterback. The Man with the Yellow Hat and George go outside to play football, because it will do George good to play a little before they go on with his letters. George plays really well and the Man with the Yellow Hat tells him that it was a good game, but the game ends and they have to go back to the alphabet. * Capital R for Rabbit; lowercase r for rooster * Capital S and lowercase s for snail (The Capital "S" becomes a Big Snail; the lowercase "s" becomes a small snail) * Capital T for a Table; lowercase t for a tomahawk The man tells George that it's time for a snack and gives him a note to run over to the bakery and buy one dozen doughnuts and tells George not to play any more tricks. But George, with his usual curiosity, deliberately crosses out the "one" on the note and writes "ten", goes to the baker, brings the bag of doughnuts home and drops the doughnuts--all 120 of them--on the floor. When the Man with the Yellow Hat sees the mess and the note, he scolds George for playing another trick (he says, "Well, that comes from teaching the alphabet to a little monkey. And I told you, 'No tricks'!".), and tells him no doughnuts now and to put them back in the bag and they return to the alphabet. * Capital U and lowercase u for umbrella (The Capital "U" becomes a Big Umbrella; the lowercase "u" becomes a small umbrella) * Capital V and lowercase v for valentine (The Capital "V" becomes a Big Valentine; the lowercase "v" becomes a small valentine) * Capital W for Whiskers on a Walrus; lowercase w for whiskers on a cat * Capital X and lowercase x look alike, but the Man with the Yellow Hat tells George that there are only a few words that begin with X, and they aren't pronounced like an X; except for X-mas (therefore, capital X for Santa Claus) * Capital Y and lowercase y for yak (The Capital "Y" becomes a Big Yak; the lowercase "y" becomes a small yak) * Capital Z and lowercase z for zebra (The Capital "Z" becomes a Big Zebra; the lowercase "z" becomes a small zebra) The Man with the Yellow Hat tells George that he now knows all 26 letters of the alphabet and that now he may have the doughnuts. At the "The End" page, George uses 76 of the doughnuts to spell out "THE END". Category:Books Category:Original Adventures Category:Alphabet books